August 2010 – Mindfulness
Focus: Bring more awareness to my emotions and identify needs that I may not be meeting adequately.
Resolutions:
-Daily emotions log.
-Be aware of judgements.
-Breathe in a quiet moment.
September 2010 – Self Care
Focus: Do those things I know (or suspect) will help put me in a positive physical and emotional state.
Resolutions:
-Get more sleep.
-Take a daily 10-minute walk outside.
-No sugar or alcohol.
-Veggies at every meal.
October 2010 – Order
Focus: Complete nagging tasks and make my home more of a refuge of calm.
Resolutions:
-Complete one nagging task.
-Establish daily and weekly routines.
-Declutter and organize.
-Purchasing fast.
November 2010 – Writing
Focus: Jump start my writing practice and make it a part of my daily routine again.
Resolutions:
-Write a novel.
-Establish a daily writing schedule.
-Facebook fast.
December 2010 – Fun
Focus: Let myself have a ball.
Resolutions:
-Set the stage for enjoyment.
-Make time for fun.
January 2011 – Explore
Focus: Go out on a bit of a limb and try some things I haven’t done before.
Resolutions:
-Go cross-country skiing.
-Go dancing. In public.
-Try a martial art.
February 2011 – Marriage
Focus: Increase happiness in my bond with my husband.
Resolutions:
-Make eye contact.
-Criticize with love (or not at all).
-Verbalize the positives.
-Touch.
March 2011 – Motherhood
Focus: Find and foster joy in my relationship with my children.
Resolutions:
-Act goofy at least once every day.
-Take at least one photo of the kids each day.
-Keep a kid journal.
-Sit on the floor with the kids at least once every day.
April 2011 – Friendship/Social Life
Focus: Build and strengthen relationships with my friends and my extended family.
Resolutions:
-Acknowledge birthdays.
-Call one friend a week.
-Make three new friends.
-Have a mommy-date once a week.
May 2011 – Service
Focus: Experience the pleasure of giving to the wider community.
Resolutions:
-Participate in two one-time volunteer activities this month.
-Help a friend.
-Determine one worthy cause to which to donate money each month.
-Practice random acts of kindness daily.
June 2011 – Sharing Happiness
Focus: Find and utilize ways in which to express my happiness in order to share it with others.
Resolutions:
-Smile when I feel happy.
-Tell people when I feel happy.
-Use hugs as a greeting and a goodbye.
-Laugh out loud.
July 2011 – Practice and Reflect
Focus: Determine which practices are increasing my happiness and continue those. Reflect on the experience and record my impressions.
Imperfect Happiness 
Perfect imperfections indeed, you’ve got the right idea. It’s the small things, the self-help, the positive outlook that makes the difference…in you and people around you! Thanks for being one of those people!
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I have just awarded you the Lovely Blog Award! See my post today.
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I love this! subscribed to your blog! I just did the dance in public thing for the first time and it was glorious! Such simple ideas, but so monumental towards a happy hme, like sit on the floor with your kids everyday – undivided attention to play with them, show them they are more important than anything else at that moment.
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Really like your blog idea! There’s so much to be said for life’s “perfect” imperfections. 🙂
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Aloha CJ, Great Project, Cool thoughts and intentions.
I had done something similar, but it was goals that got me, Set and write your goals down, and years later. . . somehow most of the goals were met! Keep on your journey,
Life is full of surprises and challenges, being Happy is the greatest joy to living your life.
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Thank you, Stan, for your comment and warm sentiments! And for visiting my blog!
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Nice blog, Im working on something similar but with less structure and more wandering! However I echo your daily goals of !) breathing 2) writing 3) mindfulness 4) fun 5) sharing. Best to you on the happiness journey
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Thanks, Julia! I took a quick look at your blog, but I’ll look at it in more depth after the kids are in bed tonight. I like finding people on similar journeys. It’s fun to see both the intended paths and the detours! (And I’m definitely comfortable with structure. Maybe one day I’ll branch out and do more wandering.)
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Very interesting project! I came accross your blog and love your idea of starting up a happiness project and making resolutions. I try and make short term resolutions (places where I’m trying to find happiness in something other than usual work)and it’s not really gone well so far! I think making a list like you’ve done here, i,e writing it down would help. Also, I might try and grab a copy of the ‘The happiness project’ book, do you think it was worth a read?
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I definitely enjoyed Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. It was the inspiration for my happiness project. Her stories are interesting, and she gives some great practical suggestions for starting one’s own happiness project.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’re finding the posts here interesting.
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Wow, Charity, I’ve been following your project a little bit on your blog. I haven’t read this page before, however. I think it would take me a year to work on each thing you have scheduled for a month! Is this month by month approach working for you? Is it enough to get yourself into good habits?
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I do find the schedule a little ambitious (overly so, sometimes). But so far, things seem to be sticking fairly well. I do think that the monthly focus areas are working for me. Sometimes I notice that something’s fallen by the wayside (usually Self Care), but having the habit of mindfulness in place, I can recognize what’s going on and either accept that now’s not the right time to bring that aspect back, or I can regroup and bring more focus onto the areas that will support me on a daily basis. In the past, I’ve assigned myself “good” things to do and then gotten discouraged and dropped the whole thing when I’ve fallen behind (in my estimation). Having an ambitious plan, I realize at the outset that I’m not going to stick to every resolution perfectly. I just kind of try to use them to raise awareness in my life and to help point me in a healthy direction. So far, I think the most useful resolutions have been the Mindfulness resolutions from August. It’s been really helpful to be in the habit of noticing when I’m judging myself and others. I think it’s helped me be more compassionate with myself and with everyone else with whom I interact. Thanks for reading my blog! I really enjoy writing it, and I feel pleased when other people enjoy reading it.
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